It’s just as well sports people don't adhere to the old entertainment adage of never working with children or animals.
Eilish Byrne has been working with the latter since she was 13, not allowing her spina bifide to prevent her from riding horses and eventually competing in showjumping and dressage events at the very highest level.
She was part of Ireland’s dressage team which carried away a bronze medal from the 2012 Paralympics in London, but this weekend she is indulging in another long-held sporting passion at the age of 59 as she swaps her four-legged companion for the solitude of rowing.
The Maracsull is a gruelling event, hosted by Portadown Boat Club on Saturday which involves competitors rowing a 15km course up the River Bann.
Following her success at London, Eilish spent a few years coaching equestrian before getting back in the water in 2016 to take up rowing.
“I was really at a loss as to what to do it myself [after equestrian]. We'd always been brought up in the water at, my dad had boats. I'm from Dundalk, so we were practically brought up in Carlingford and we raced dingies, went swimming and to the adventure centre,” she said.
That competitive instinct, however, soon kicked in and she began competing in a para-rowing events, although as she admits the field was often limited.
“I’ve done a couple of races in Belfast, but often I’ve been the only participant,” she said.
“I suppose after their years of rowing, I was always very slow with the start. The Marascull gave me something to focus on.
“The most I’ve ever done is 3km in a competition and, I don’t know, I think I have just one made in my old age. I’m 59 and I have still no sense!”
Rowing has gained a heightened profile in Ireland following success on the Olympic and World Championship stage by the likes of Paul O’Donovan, Fintan McCarthy and Siobhan McCrohan.
The club in Portadown are busy trying to provide a platform for the next generation of rowers, who have taken their inspiration from those lofty achievements, but they are equally providing accessibility to someone who already has a global medal tucked away.
“I think what’s lovely about the whole rowing scene, for me is - now, I’m the only member that's disabled and the first ever member that's disabled at Portadown Boat Club, Eilis said.
“But the camaraderie, you know for making friends and enjoying your time out and they’re brilliant at encouraging me and keeping me going. There’s a great atmosphere.
“They're very willing all to get me involved at any which way possible.”
“I’m not able to lift myself in and out, so the lovely members of the club, help me in and out. there's this one lady, Clare and she has pushed me and, you know, helped me in and out of the water to do all my training up until the Marascull. So, I was rowing four times a week practically.
“I was saying to them all in the club ‘just throw me in the water and pick me up the following week’.”
Although inclusion in high-level sport is apparent in events such as the Paralympics, there is still considerable ground to make up at a local level. Eilish laughs at the suggestion that she is a pioneer, but she is hoping her example can provide the platform for a great focus on para-rowing
“When I spoke to Sport NI, and that's a long time ago, they were saying there is the problem in Northern Ireland with access to waterways,” she said.
“I’m in a wheelchair and there's 12 steps down to the slip and the boardwalk and I go down that on my bum and I go back up it on my bum and into the wheelchair. You know, which is fine for me but it's not obviously suitable for everybody.”
* The annual Portadown Boat Club Marascull takes place on Saturday, October 14. Racing starts at 11am at the Bann Foot where the first wave of rowers will be safely dispatched ,with the last crews in wave four setting off around 12:30pm.
It is one of only two long distance races in Ireland, the Marascull is a 15km endurance race beginning at the Bann Foot, where the Upper Bann enters Lough Neagh, winding its way up a peaceful course to Portadown Boat Club on the outskirts of Portadown.
This year 48 boats from seven clubs will participate, with rowers in every age category from J14 to Masters G category, rowing single, double and quad sculling boats.